hiking apparel reviews

Review: L.L. Bean PrimaLoft Mountain Pro Hoodie

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L.L. Bean Primaloft Mountain Pro Hoodie
L.L. Bean Primaloft Mountain Pro Hoodie

Hybrid Insulated Jacket
L.L. Bean PrimaLoft Mountain Pro Hoodie
$129, 1 lb. 6 oz. (medium regular)
Sizes: men’s S-XL
llbean.com

Frigid blasts of wind hit us periodically as we climbed in hot alpine sunshine in a snow-filled couloir on the Mountaineers Route on 14,505-foot Mount Whitney, in California’s High Sierra in mid-April. Those are challenging conditions in which to stay warm without rapidly overheating—a common challenge in a variety of weather circumstances when you’re outside in winter or in the mountains in shoulder seasons. Fortunately for me, Bean’s hybrid-insulation PrimaLoft Mountain Pro Hoodie handles wide-ranging conditions with aplomb, so I never got cold or sweated much.

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Review: Outdoor Research Realm Jacket

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Outdoor Research Realm Jacket
Outdoor Research Realm Jacket

Rain Jacket
Outdoor Research Realm Jacket
$279, 10.5 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL
moosejaw.com

Carrying a heavy pack in intermittent, strong gusts of cold wind and hot sun—that’s actually one of the best tests of a rain shell, because you’ll discover how breathable it is, which dictates whether you can stay dry (read: not sweating up a personal storm inside it) and comfortable while exerting hard. On a four-day, spring ascent of The Mountaineers Route on California’s Mount Whitney, I wore the Realm Jacket while lugging a pack weighing over 40 pounds to our high camp at 12,000 feet—as the alpine sun created a solar oven with the snow-covered ground, and a biting wind ripped through every few minutes. Going repeatedly from freezer to broiler, I stayed completely dry. That’s just one of several reasons to like the Realm Jacket.

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Review: Arc’teryx Atom SL Hoody

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Ultralight JacketArc’teryx Atom SL Hoody$280, 9 oz./255g (men’s medium)Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XLrei.com Here’s a testament to the versatility of this partly insulated, lightweight wind shell: I’ve probably worn it more than any other layering piece I own over the past several months, for virtually everything I do outdoors, in every season: backpacking in August in Kootenay National Park, in …

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Review: Outdoor Research Uberlayer Hooded Jacket

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Outdoor Research Uberlayer Hooded Jacket
Outdoor Research Uberlayer Hooded Jacket

Breathable Insulated Jacket
Outdoor Research Uberlayer Hooded Jacket
$299, 1 lb. 2 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
moosejaw.com

The explosion in breathable-insulation garments has changed the way we think about insulation in the backcountry. But in an increasingly crowded field, some jackets still rise above. I wore OR’s new Uberlayer Hooded Jacket for numerous days of backcountry skiing—including, at times, as an outer layer while skinning uphill—and as a middle layer skiing downhill both in the backcountry and for hours at a resort And I wore it in temperatures ranging from around freezing to wind chills below zero Fahrenheit, and came away convinced this is a jacket you could legitimately use into the backcountry every month of the year.

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Review: Patagonia Dual Aspect Hoody

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Patagonia Dual Aspect Hoody
Patagonia Dual Aspect Hoody

Hybrid Jacket
Patagonia Dual Aspect Hoody
$249, 16 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XL
patagonia.com

What if you could find one jacket that serves as on-the-go insulation in cool to cold temperatures, functions as both a middle layer and an outer layer that sheds snow and light rain like a soft-shell jacket, but breathes better than most soft shells, so that you rarely take it off? Patagonia’s Dual Aspect Hoody does all of that—and this hybrid jacket has design elements that raise it above even many of the cutting-edge, breathable-insulation apparel pieces out there, I decided after numerous days of backcountry skiing in it.

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